Members heatheroo Posted March 8, 2012 Members Share Posted March 8, 2012 we play a VFW hall occasionally and have a problem with buzzing/humming in our amps. The outlets immediately behind the stage can't be used because, according to my VOM they only have 70VAC available. We end up stringing some extension cords to outlets about 20' away. These outlets measure out at 120VAC but we get an ungodly amount of hum using them. Even my bass rig (Thunderbird into a Roland preamp/QSC poweramp) is bad and it's usually impervious to AC hum. The guitar players Les Paul through a Marshall is almost unberarable. If I roll off enough highs from my bass I can eliminate most of it......but I sound like mud. I've tried lifting the grounds but that hasn't helped. Obviously, based on the undervoltage from the one set of outlets, the hall has electrical problems. I'd like to make a recommendation to the VFW about how to fix it. Any thoughts? I'm guessing, this is a typical "social club" setup where repairs/renovations are performed by a members BIL/friend/cousin who "used to work" in the business, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Chinese Posted March 8, 2012 Members Share Posted March 8, 2012 First of i'd measure the Back outlets, neutral to Ground. Bet they have a serious voltage...hehe Get a licensed electrician in there to look at it. The 70v says danger in the form of a Hot tied into ground, or other nonsense... the hum comes from noise dumped back into the neutral usually...probabaly a large current there. Dimmers, motors, etc et al... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Phil Clark Posted March 8, 2012 Members Share Posted March 8, 2012 You may want to look into getting a power tap and tying into the main panel to get yourself clean power. Jerry does that, but he is an electrical engineer. If you don't have anyone skilled enough to deal with it, then I don't know what to suggest. Definitely don't do this though if you don't know what you are doing. And NEVER use just clips on the panel, always install and remove your own breakers. Don't risk your life to get rid of the hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted March 8, 2012 Members Share Posted March 8, 2012 Fix the real problem (have the hall get this fixed) before you damage your gear or hurt somebody. Yes, you can damage stuff this way. They need to get a real electrician out there to get things correctly diagnosed and fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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